Abstract
Uncertainty contributes to stress and anxiety-like behaviors by impairing the ability of participants to objectively estimate threat. Our study used the cue-picture paradigm in conjunction with the event-related potential (ERP) technique to explore the temporal dynamics of anticipation for and response to uncertain threat in healthy individuals. This task used two types of cue. While ‘certain’ cues precisely forecasted the valence of the subsequent pictures (negative or neutral), the valence of pictures following ‘uncertain’ cues was not predictable. ERP data showed that, during anticipation, uncertain cues elicited similar Stimulus-Preceding Negativity (SPN) to certain-negative cues, while both of them elicited larger SPN than certain-neutral cues. During affective processing, uncertainty enlarged the mean amplitude of late positive potential (LPP) for both negative and neutral pictures. Behavioral data showed that participants reported more negative mood ratings of uncertain-neutral pictures relative to certain-neutral pictures and overestimated the probability of negative pictures following uncertain cues. Importantly, the enlarged anticipatory activity evoked by uncertain cues relative to that evoked by certain-neutral cues positively modulated the more negative mood ratings of uncertain-neutral pictures relative to certain-neutral pictures. Further, this more negative mood ratings and the general arousal anticipation during anticipatory stage contributed to the covariation bias. These results can provide a novel insight into understanding the neural mechanism and pathological basis of anxiety.
Highlights
Uncertainty, the unknown probability, time and cost of a future event, is a phenomenon that we encounter in our everyday lives
By recording the temporal dynamics of processing under uncertainty, our study explored two primary questions
How is anticipatory activity influenced by uncertainty and what is the subsequent effect of anticipation on neural and behavioral responses to pictures
Summary
Uncertainty, the unknown probability, time and cost of a future event, is a phenomenon that we encounter in our everyday lives. People show inability to objectively assess the relationship between environmental cues and potential outcomes and tend to highly estimate the frequency of threat (Grupe and Nitschke, 2011). Uncertainty enlarges the processing of stimuli and leads to more negative experience of Uncertain Anticipation Modulates Affective Response stimuli (Grupe and Nitschke, 2011; Dieterich et al, 2016). We still know little about the neural mechanisms of anticipation of future threat when its occurrence is uncertain. Whether uncertain anticipation modulates participants’ subsequent neural and behavioral responses to stimuli? What are the contributors to people’s inability to objectively assess the relationship between uncertain situation and threat? Whether the neural anticipatory activity is altered by uncertainty? Whether uncertain anticipation modulates participants’ subsequent neural and behavioral responses to stimuli? What are the contributors to people’s inability to objectively assess the relationship between uncertain situation and threat?
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